Back 'ome!

For the past 3 weeks since I have been home I have been absolutely flat out! I wish that I had kept track of the kilometers that I have put on my car because all it feels like I have done is sit in my car and drive all over Sydney from north to south to north to west back north.... It has brought to my attention my lack of time management. This is something I am working on.
(above:My typical drive home from the cable
goes through the city, the view can be hard)


(right:JB in the lead as usual)

Working, riding cable every chance I get, watching the super cross where the Monster Tige Tour boat was proudly displayed, riding at Black Diamond in Sydney and watching my dad race his car around and around at Eastern Creek. Enjoying pizza and wine with my mother from a harbour side park looking over the city at night, setting up my life on the other side of Sydney, riding in the first Cable Park Rail Jam and trying to catch up with friends in between. Things have been an real whirl wind of fun!



Sydney Cable Park is very much open and don't I love it!I have spent more time in Penrith than in my own bed since I have been home, that is not such a bad thing! Everything about this park is perfect, the layout, the staff and the rails, also the 2.0's that they have got set up have made for some fun times. Dean and I had a play around together on it last week, he got me doing stale frontflip, a front to fakie and I think I even got a legit Sbend in also!

This Saturday just passed the Sydney Park played host to the first stop of the Cable Park Rail Jam Series, two new rails were finished just in time, a step down flat bar and a big transfer box with a C rail on the side. Everybody was loving these rails, the level of riding in both the wakeboard and the skate divisions was really high, especially in the under 17 boys wakeboard division with a 900 going down! As usual the boat riders gave the cable riders a run for their money in all divisions, Tony Iacconi taking out the under 13 with a huge KGB off the kicker, Brenton Priestly and Dean mixing it up on the rails and kickers against BoBo and Ty Clifford in the Open Men. In the Women's Amber and I took the top of the podium against a handful of girls who have a lot of talent on the rails and kickers like Lauren Mead, Courtney Angus and some new faces with Sophie Hogben and Ailysa Gibbons. I was really pumped to take out this event as I was really nervous with the pressure the girls put on Amber and myself. There is a competitive spirit with these contests with everyone watching what the other girls are doing, trying to one up them and stay on top of the water so that you don't have to make the swim and sprint back to the dock.

Wakeboard Camp coach Kurt Robinson from NZ has been here for the past week coaching some local Hacko grommets. It was awesome to catch up with him, wining and dinning at Northies, Cronulla, sampling his mango chicken tacos that I missed out on that were AMAZING! And getting my shreddy shred shred on with his grommets at the Cable park, as uncle Kurt instructed them on the ways of the kickers and rails! Watching Jack, Elliot, Michael and Bryce was a lot of fun, it brought back memories from 10 years ago when I first learnt to hit rails at this very same park. The groms really excelled with Kurt's guidance, they really trusted what he had to say and took everything on board.

Bec & Tristan Gange and myself at the Projects

Flordia is FA FA FA FA FREEEEEZZZING!

WOW! I can't believe it how quickly temperatures can change, last week was somewhat of a usual Florida temp, but over the weekend things quickly got cold! We have turned off all the air conditioning in our house and I am driving around with the car window down. SO WEIRD! haha but I am really enjoying the change. I just haven't been wakeboarding yet, so it would be nice if the wind stopped and the air heated up, just for a little longer.

Thanks to one of my good friends whom goes by the name of English, I had to opportunity to run VIP status at the Dew Tour in Orlando on Sunday. We heading in to watch the skateboard vert finals and BMX park finals which was so cool! Right as we walked into the arena Bob Burnquist rolled in... I got so excited! The first group was crazy with Burnquist, Dias and Lasek and I was literally sitting not even 6mtrs away from the vert ramp!! In the super final these guys were joined by PLG an Andy Macdonald. It was really one of the coolest things I have watched for a while.

I myself am not a very talented skateboarder, I can dabble and have friends who have very patiently taught me to not kill myself on a mini ramp, but I do really enjoy watching. Especially vert. One kid from Florida really pumped me up, Adam Taylor. He seriously boosted out of the vert ramp, there is no way I would ever do that!

After the vert finals we headed over the the BMX Park where I got to cheer on fellow Aussie Ryan Guettler, and had Dave Mirra bunny hop back flip drop in. He fell on it in the first round then pulled it off int eh second, was pretty impressive. Also Daniel Dhers was amazing, some of the things he was doing was crazy.

To cap off my night I headed back into the Dew Tour with Amber to watch Flo Rida perform. It wasn't the best concert I have been to, way too much talking was going on and they wouldn't play the songs long enough! But, when you don't have to pay to get in, you can let these things slide... just once. At one point he got on one of his bouncers shoulders and walked through the vip section, if I was that excited I could have gone up and given him an atomic wedgie!


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On a sad note, my brother and I have been trying to change our flights to get back to Australia as our grandfather is in hospital in a heavy sleep with dr's telling my family its only a matter of days before he passes. So far he is still fighting all on his own, I feel to prove everybody wrong.I have always been my grandfathers Little girl, I'd run to him when my nan would try to get angry at me. He and I are very alike as we are both stubborn, he lets my nan boss him around, but I feel like he is letting everybody know that he is still the boss!

The past week has been fairly stressful, but I am trying to keep happy memories of my grandfather in my mind. I have been trying to remember as many of the positive times that I can, as much as it makes me sad knowing that those times may soon be over, I will always find happiness in these memories.

Once Surf expo and the world titles are over things usually settle down in Orlando, we usually get to kick back and relax before those from the southern hemisphere travel back to Oz. Though that hasn't seem to ring true in 2009.

I have seriously lost track of time and quite possibly contracted jet lag!

So I will begin with extending my visa in the US. This ended up being a fairly simple exercise.. once you know what your doing! Though it did take me about a week to gather documents pretty much saying yes I can afford to stay and yes I will eventually leave. I was stressed and confused out of my mind though! I honestly think it was an IQ test. They test people to see if they are smart enough to stay longer there should be a title stating "If you can figure out what you need to send us all on your own can stay!"

One thing that got in my way with being more efficient with the visa extension was the fact that Amber now has a beautiful 24ft Supra sitting at in the water out the front of the wakeboard camp taking up one of their boat clips! We have been riding full on behind this boat and I think that our riding is showing it. We have been riding with Ben Greenwood most days as with Bob Sichel. As you would imagine Ben is a good person to have around when you want some motivation and both these lads are always try to improve or learn something different.Ben has been throwing some solid wrapped tricks and varieties of 720s, Bob has been opening up his set with a hs 720 also, I like to do a wake jump to open my set. Each to their own.

Bec Gange has been coming out on the odd occasion also. She has landed two crowmobes. I don't think I need to say anymore....... haha heck yes!!

Amber went into contest preparation mode in the lead up for the Asian Cup and the World Cup. She was riding so strong, her riding was the most confident I have seen her for a long time. Miss Wing was throwing down ts 720 after 720 and then laid it down in a line of hammers which she wants to use in a contest! Look out 2010!

Other than riding I have been moving house... Yes that's right! Into a lovely dwelling that Amber purchased! This place is so awesome. Everything happened so quick with the purchasing of the property we hardly had time to pack! Well we didn't. Actually Amber packed her bags to head off to China to compete and the next day I was cleaning the new house, then began the Great Move of 2009. Amber just got home today from China and lucky her walked straight into her new home, with everything already moved for her... Thanks to the boys for helping me out with that! Not only does TWC offer the worlds best coaches, though a very handy removalist service!

Wakegirls.com came along with us and filmed for the website, check out the behind the scenes of the Great Move of 2009 HERE.

Oh yeah and the latest awesome thing to happen is that my car decided today that she (Bumble & Bumble) doesn't like Kiwis. In fact after one drove her today she decided to not want to kick over again and is staying in a supermarket car park over night. I have been looking into getting a tow truck to her tomorrow and taken to a mechanic which conveniently is just over the road from our house. At least that is a plus!

That's the latest so far. I will keep you updated with Bumble & Bumble and I will hopefully get some little clips from riding with Ben, Amber, Bob and Bec!

The Chasers War on Everything

I just found out that the Chaser is no longer running. I will have to stick to youtube for my fixes.

I just found this video as I was searching youtube for chaser videos. I love when they go to the USA and take the piss... It does really amuse me..

wakeboardcamp.com

I have been back at the camp riding since being home from the Reno Tour stop. I love being at home and riding here!! the water is so amazing right now, the wake gods are blessing us with calm conditions and allowing us to have the whole lake to ourselves!

A huge thanks to the crew at the camp for allowing me to ride here and take advantage of such awesomeness!

Check out whats been happening with the crew at the camp with their blog through the logo above!